India has emerged as an unrivalled market for goods and services. With a strong demographic dividend projected to last for decades, a healthy ecosystem of effective regulatory processes, sustainable and stable macroeconomic conditions, competitive factor markets, and growing domestic demand, India is the bright spot in the dismal global backdrop of sluggish economic growth.
The Union Budget 2023-24 has laid down a blueprint to steer the economy towards increased growth and prosperity. To minimize bureaucracy and maximize growth, the budget has struck the right balance between effectiveness, fairness and consistency.
In the last few years, the government has introduced several industry-friendly policies such as PLI schemes, Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP), PM Gati Shakti, India Industrial Landbank, the National Logistics Policy and the National Single Window System to project India as the most attractive destination, not only for investments but also for doing business. With the intention of fostering healthy competition at the sub-national level, the Department for Promotion of Industries & Internal Trade (DPIIT) initiated the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) exercise in 2014, one of the most dynamic reforms ranking all the States and UTs based on designated reform parameters. As a result of these efforts, India has improved substantially in the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019. It has progressed on seven out of the 10 parameters.
To further enhance the ease of doing business in the country, the Union Budget 2023-24 highlighted that more than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and more than 3,400 legal provisions have been decriminalized. Promoting trust-based governance at all levels, Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Jan Vishwas Bill to amend 42 Central Acts.
The 10-digit Permanent Account Number, or PAN, will be used as a common business identifier for all digital systems of all specified departments of government agencies. An integrated system of unified filing processes at the central and state-level departments will be set up to avoid repeated submission of documents, ensure the authenticity of the same and lead to quicker processing of requests.
A country's business regulatory environment is a particularly important and influential determinant in a country's economic growth levels. India’s focus on consistently improving the country’s business environment and implementing innovative measures to boost manufacturing and investments in the country has unlocked the potential of the country’s economy and presents game-changing opportunities for domestic businesses, multinational companies, and the government. The Make in India and the Vocal for Local campaigns are helping localise these opportunities.
